When you're asleep in your bed at night. You probably don't know it, but Belize's Anti-Narcotics Unit and other specialised teams are roving through the bush, trying to interdict or deter narco jets. Those jets fly out of South America nightly - two or three at a time, headed for this region, and they land somewhere between Honduras, Belize, Mexico and Guatemala.
Last night two dropped - right next to each other - but one was in extreme southwestern Belize, the other right across the border in Guatemala.
Today at noon, before that information on the location was confirmed, the Commissioner of Police spoke in Belmopan about what was known about the landing:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police "We did receive information that there is a possible landing right along the Belize Guatemalan border in the most southern part of the country. We have not been able to confirm but we have officers, police and BDF heading to that location since earlier this morning trying to get there but it is extremely rough terrain and like I said it's all the way close to the Guatemalan border. So, it's going to take them a couple hours to get there. As soon as they arrive at the location, if it can be confirmed, we will be briefed and then the media will be given an update as to that particular situation."
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs "Like the commissioner said, this one took place in a very remote, very high vegetation area in the south and we are still trying to get there."
Chester Williams "We have been dealing with these plane landings for quite some time now and it is extremely difficult to prevent all of them from landing. We often do not get credit for those that we averted."
Hon. Kareem Musa "We are in effect locking off the known or traditional landing spots and so I want to applaud the commissioner of police and the Belize Police Department for the fact you're not hearing the landings in the spots that are known to receive these landings and like the commissioner said, if we were to have a media event or press conference every single time there is a diversion of an aircraft in our airspace, you would be with us every single night."
And tonight, information says that the police are deep in the bush of the south looking for the cocaine cargo from a drug plane that was found burnt.
Actually, there were two planes. A press release sent this evening from the Commissioner of Police says that three planes were tracked flying out of South America last night. The release continues, quote, " About 4:41am we were alerted via the air asset of our counterparts that one of the planes crash landed in the southern part of the country near our border with Guatemala. This is an extremely remote area, with thick and high vegetation and is not an area previously known for these activities. Our teams were immediately deployed to the reported landing site; however, due to the rugged terrain it took them hours to reach the location. About 6:30am our counterparts via their air asset again informed us of yet another landing in the same general area as the previous one, only this time it is on the Guatemalan side of the border." End quote.
The release continues, "a few hours ago our teams arrived at the area and confirmed the presence of two burnt planes on the ground, one on the Belizean side and the other on the Guatemalan side of the border."
